Archives

Welcome to the archives of Better Cities & Towns, a publication founded by Robert Steuteville as New Urban News in 1996. This archive holds two decades of the best news and analysis on compact, mixed-use growth and development, from 1996 to 2015.
Oklahoma’s first new urbanist development, the Village at Central Park, is now under construction six blocks from downtown Tulsa. The infill project includes 103 units in brownstone townhomes and loft homes, as well as eight three-story retail...
Leon Krier and Andres Duany are teaching a design studio at Yale University this semester. Students will travel to study the transects in 20 cities and document building types, frontages, and the use of buildings and open space. This information...
“... the New Urbanism draws life from a humanist tradition in civic art, along with an essentially classical idealism. And in stark contrast to the “architectural circles” for which [New York Times architectural critic] Herbert Muschamp speaks, the...
Temple University’s Center for Sustainable Communities recently received a $1.5-million federal grant. University officials hope academic neutrality will foster agreements between competing groups, while developers and environmentalists hope the...
Recent opposition to a development in Suffolk, Virginia, shows the uphill battle that many developers of new urbanist projects face — even in a municipality with progressive zoning provisions. Driver Village, a 45-home subdivision, was narrowly...
Category: public open space. Subcategory: plazas and squares. Editor's Note. This page is the first of a series dedicated to detailing the techniques appearing in The Lexicon of the New Urbanism. A square is a public space, defined by building...
In Pittsburgh, a public/private partnership is transforming an unusual brownfield site into the city’s largest new residential development in more than 50 years. Building neighborhoods on abandoned industrial sites is no longer a novelty, but...
A group of foundations focusing on smart growth is undertaking a study of real estate finance cosponsored by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). The Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, based in Miami, was founded in 1999...
A host of mixed-use buildings are under construction in the Los Angeles area, and this trend is expected to more than double the number of residential units located above commercial uses in that city, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal....
Editor’s note: Due to space considerations, New Urban News is unable to print the full list of projects and codes compiled by the authors. Please contact us at (607) 275-3087 and we’ll be happy to send you a copy of the list. A preliminary survey...
Glatting Jackson of Orlando has hired Ian M. Lockwood, a nationally recognized traffic calming expert, as a Senior Transportation Engineer. Lockwood, formerly a transportation engineer with West Palm Beach, Florida, won the 1997 Past Presidents’...
“The advantages of the cul-de-sac over the through street are that they are quieter and safer for children; they provide the potential for more neighborly interaction; there is a greater sense of privacy; residents have a greater ability to...